Kansas guard Ben McLemore dances on stage to the Jayhawk fans following the Jayhawks' 70-54 win over Kansas State in the Big 12 tournament championship on Saturday, March 16 2013 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

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Kansas basketball v. Kansas State (Big 12 Tournament)

Images from Saturday's Big 12 Tournament championship game against Kansas State at the Sprint Center.

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Kansas seniors Jeff Withey, Elijah Johnson, Travis Releford, Kevin Young talk to reporters after the Jayhawks' 70-54 victory over Kansas State in the Big 12 tournament championship game on March 16, 2013.

“To get that last win in the Big 12 means a lot to us. It’s something the seniors can look back on and brag about,” KU senior center Jeff Withey said after scoring 17 points and grabbing nine rebounds and being named Most Outstanding Player of the event.

Withey and his teammates mentioned “bragging rights” more than once, following a game billed as one that would determine the true Big 12 champion.

Both teams tied at 14-4 and were deemed co-champions during the regular season, though the Jayhawks did sweep the home-and-home series, 2-0.

“It means a lot to our fans who support us,” Withey said. “They can go to work and not have to hear K-State fans saying they were co-champs. I think we won it outright today.”

Senior guard Travis Releford, who popped out his jersey to the fans before throwing his wristbands into the stands after the final horn, acknowledged, “Now our fans can brag about who is the best team in the conference.

“We went into this saying, ‘Whoever won it, it’s winner take all.’ If they would have won, I don’t think we would have gone around saying we were the better team because they would have proved it. Now we can go out and say we’re the best team in the conference. Our fans have bragging rights. It means a lot to them, too,” Releford added.

“This game had to be played to be decided,” stated senior point guard Elijah Johnson, who scored nine points with six turnovers against three assists.

KU coach Bill Self — he proudly noted that his Jayhawks have “had 18 opportunities to win a championship the last nine years and we’ve got 15” — credited a suffocating KU defense for the victory.

“We defended them. They didn’t get many easy baskets. Our defense was terrific the first half,” said Self, whose squad held (27-7) KSU to 16 points off 22.2-percent shooting the first half in grabbing a 24-16 lead. “I think it was our best game (of the three wins) against them. Our defense was exceptional.”

Releford did his usual stellar job on Rodney McGruder, who scored 18 points off 7-of-15 shooting, but scored just four points off 2-of-9 shooting out of the gate.

“The key was help from my teammates, them being aware, letting me know when screens were coming,” Releford said. “Because he ran off a lot of screens. I knew I had to make him uncomfortable and be there on the catch and not let him get easy looks, and I think that was a key in the first half.”

The Jayhawks clicked offensively in scoring 46 the final half.

Naadir Tharpe (12 points, four threes) scored six points and dished a perfect pass to Releford for an assist on a dunk in a 12-3 run that upped a 33-28 lead to 45-31 at 11:59. Perry Ellis, who was named to the five-player all-tournament team, had eight points in a 12-5 surge that upped a 50-41 lead to 62-46.

“I came in here and had no thoughts I would do that. I just come in and try to win. Before the game, coach stressed defense and rebounding, that it’d be a battle. I think we did a good job there.”

KU held KSU to 35-percent shooting overall. The Cats hit six of 24 threes. KU hit 49.1 percent of its shots, including seven of 14 threes.

The Jayhawks won on a day freshman McLemore hit for just five points off 2-of-7 shooting.

“It was a great game for us,” McLemore said. “I didn’t play my best. I’m proud of my teammates. Being out there, celebrating for the first time with my teammates, a lot of seniors, felt great. It’s a blessing to be here with these seniors. Now that we’ve won it all (in conference), we’ve got to keep going, keep playing and try to win the national championship.”

The Jayhawks at 5 p.m. Sunday (CBS Selection Show) will likely learn they’ve been awarded opening-round NCAA Tournament game(s) in Sprint Center next Friday and Sunday, as either a No. 1 or 2 seed. The reward of playing close to home will go to the team that will enter the postseason with a 29-5 record.

“We don’t control that. We’re in a good position to get a No. 1 seed depending on how teams ahead of us played,” Releford said. “I don’t know how it works, but if it goes off how a team is playing, I think we should have a 1 seed.”

Once again, Musburger had me this close to jamming screwdrivers in my ears. And I used to like Fraschilla but not since the Iowa State game. Seriously, the on-and-on about the fouls was painful. They kept talking about what KState should do about the fouls, and about how Weber should go ballistic. Hey, I've got an idea--how about you stop fouling? I hate when announcers (or coaches or fans) compare the number of fouls each team has, as if the officials are biased unless they are evenly distributed between both teams. Guess what--if one team fouls the other team 10 times and the other team fouls them 0 times, then I certainly hope the referees call 10 fouls on team a and 0 fouls on team b. Sorry to go on such a stupid rant my friends, but I think you all understand how much we get hosed on horrible calls every game, and it's sickening when idiot announcers suddenly get their underpanties all bunched up about fouls.

God, this is the best time of the year, isn't it? I feel like tomorrow is the day you go to the mall to see Santa, and then next Wednesday is Christmas eve. Rock Chalk!

Musberger was really pushing it. He was keeping a running total, and after every foul he would say "Now that's for KSU and only _ for Kansas. This is really big!" Fran actually tried to shut him down by talking about the mistakes inherent in comparing the number of fouls, and finally said he thought all the fouls had been called correctly. He created a Frankenstein's monster with his witch hunt over the ISU game fouls. Mush thought he was going to be an investigative reporter.

When I officiated the game, that was always my response. The team that had more fouls called on them fouled more. My wife wants ESPN to fire Musburger because of his ignorance of the game.

I do believe someone spoke to him during half-time. During the second half he tried to apologize a few times. He even stated that he would not talk about the foul disparity again, before ranting for another 30 seconds about fouls.

He also said "don't get me started" during the Iowa State game after Fran (mistakenly) noted a missed call on some mundane play in the middle of one of the halves.

Your wife is absolutely right. Musberger is just collecting a paycheck when it comes to calling college basketball games. He doesn't know enough about the sport, and especially not the specifics of the teams and conferences, to be a primetime college basketball announcer. I'm so tired of the Big East and Big 10 getting the quality game announcers while the Big 12 gets stale Burger and a side of crap.

Should of had the women accompanying Scott Pollard last night sit near Musberger, because she would have distracted him and he would have ignored any discussion about potential discrepancy regarding fouls. Brent, I learned last night that QBs are not the only ones who get the attractive women, apparently ex-NBA basketball players do alright.

KU in PA.... I can't stand Musberger. This goes way, way back to him declaring USC a dynasty. My wife who watches half the games knows more than him. We really got screwed by ESPN in the Big 12. I'd take Bobby Knight back anyday. Wait, maybe some newbies instead.

We got screwed in TV coverage as well. As far back as I can remember, we were able to watch all of the Big 12 tournament here in Springfield, Mo on Mediacom.
This year, The Big 12 Network was unavailable so we missed session #1. We had ESPN2 for session 2 for Thursday which was great. Then Thursday evening when we played ISU followed by KSU/OSU, our friends at ESPNU opted to play Kentucky vs whoever they played. We had to watch KU/ISU via computer on ESPN3.
Still don't know if it was because we are in Missouri, but it sucked. There are a lot of KU and Big 12 fans right here in Springfield.

I'm in STL and would have been hosed by espn's #buzzerbeater coverage if I didn't have full court. Game was listed as KU/ISU on the guide, but we got some weak double coverage of Big East and had to watch a vanderbilt and kentucky instead. My parents in KC had to watch local TV for the game. ESPN blew it across the board. Here's hoping CBS respects the big 12 a little more.

The level of respect CBS has for the Big 12 involves cutting off the last 6 minutes of a game with no way to watch it so they can show an SEC game between two teams that aren't going to make the tournament. Give me ESPN all day long because you can at least see the start of a game on ESPNews or Watch ESPN until it comes on air. If you don't like the announcers, there's always a mute button.

I'm so glad I didn't have to listen to that. It was bad enough to be sitting in front of a couple -Staters who could not stop crying--and loudly--about the foul disparity. One guy about 10 rows in front of us was literally doing double-barreled middle fingers towards the refs after a "controversial" foul call.

But it's one thing to deal with ignorant fans who are just frustrated because Kansas owns their team, it's entirely another for national broadcasters are focusing so much on the foul disparity. I can understand why it might be frustrating to watch your opponent go 12 minutes into a game without a foul, but you also have to consider the fact that the foul margin at halftime was KU 3, KSU 6, hardly any kind of advantage. The final total was KU 9, KSU 15, again a pretty reasonable disparity, especially when you consider the fact that the Wildcats were forced to start pressing on defense in the second half.

The strange thing to me about Musberger's and Fraschilla's behavior is that I remember it being somewhat taboo to be very demonstrative about officiating on a broadcast not a few years ago. Announcers would occasionally lament a missed call, but none of the focal point analysis that has seemed to take over since the end of that Iowa State game.

But to echo your final sentence, I feel like I'm walking on air. The last two years of KU basketball have been a blessing to watch, and seeing these particular players have success and have so much fun doing it is just a blast.

Listening to Bob and Greg on the radio is far superior to network yappers. I enjoy the 15 second delay that ESPN has been running. It allows you to know what's coming up on the video and pay attention. There's even time to go grab a beer and still get back to the TV. Half the time those TV announcers aren't even talking about the action on the court.

And people are always talking about how we always benefit from horrible calls going for us but how about all the calls that go against us? Weber blamed Kansas State tying for the regular season on the call at hilton, but for the first 39 minutes in that game there was so much called on us that should not have been called. Next time I go to school, there will be K-State fans blaming the referees for this loss. We played well, they played okay and we showed them that we were the better team. Three times.

Still don't understand why you're here. Haven't thought a thing about Missouri since they left. Haven't missed 'em, haven't not missed 'em. Missouri doesn't enter the thought process at all. It sure as hell never occurred to me to visit a Missouri fan site, should such a thing exist. Apparently you must miss us. It ain't mutual.

Buahaha, Nice flop against Ole Miss yesterday cupcake. You have one semi good year and think you can still run with the big dogs. Tisk Tisk....Hows the SEC treatin' ya? Gee lets see here, unranked ending this year, football team was a flop... Im sure the Big 12 would consider taking you back since you cant hack it in the SEC, well matter of fact you couldn't hack it here either.....maybe you should take a look at becoming an independent. Pretty apparent you cant win a conference title.

Jaybate, you could have added that Missery has no BCS appearances, not to mention victories but I am sure they hate to hear about more sore subjects. The five downs by CU, the kicked ball by NU, the last second shot by Tyus Edney and on and on. It must really be sad to have to come on our boards to try to feel better about yourself. Well, I'd say mission failed. We are quite happy in the Big 12, sure wish Missery were here so we could have given them some more beatdowns.

"Oh, there’s no doubt,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said when asked about the importance of beating KU. “It’s a big rivalry, but it’s not a rivalry until we make it a rivalry. And that means beat them somewhere."

Liberace is a whiny embarrassment to Ksuck. Respected Huggins and even liked Martin but this guy whines like no other. His dumb looks and mocking laughs and gestures during the game are insulting to the refs, get used to never getting a call. Heard someone on a broadcast say it was a perfect fit- guess I agree

Ben has been a great teammate.....I hope he never forgets the guys because he will be a damn good NBA player.....I know his mom was more in love with misery and I hope she now see's how great KU is....Ben, you stuck with us and would have been the difference if you could have played against Kentucky

I wonder if anyone knows of another reserve named to the Big 12 tournament all-star team? Perhaps Ellis is the first and only.

If KU isn't a number 1 seed then the bias of the NCAA selection committee toward the ACC, Big East, and Big 10 is exposed to all who know anything about BB. The political dominance of the eastern schools of the NCAA is obvious but usually a bit controlled. After all it's the NCAA and not ESPN, a truly unfair organization. I hope Fox Sports can challenge ESPN big time when Fox Sports gets rolling.

I thought for sure that at least one of you that had negative comments about this team after their three game losing streak would apologize. Come on man up and say you were wrong I would but then I never gave up on them and never will give up on a Bill Self coached team.

Congratulations to a well deserved championship. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK and they say you can't beat a team three times in one season this team did it two days in a row. YEAH BABY

Seniors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta love'em! A team with experience is going to be a tough out in this years version of the NCAA. I like our chances.

Next years team will be loaded with talent........but short on experience. Wesley be our only senior next year? Tharpe, our only Junior? Ellis, Traylor, White and Rio our sophmores? Lucas a redshirt Freshman? Gonna have to be patient next season..................but alot of talent coming in also. I like the Selden kid, Frankamp is a shooter. Embid to replace our ball swatter and Greene is a solid wing with size.........if they add Randle or Wiggins late............WOW!!!!!!!!!! Loads of talent. I would say more than on this years team.

I remember in 2007 UCLA and KU were very close as last #1 and first #2, so the Committee split the difference: make KU #1 but put them in the West Regional with #2 UCLA. One team got the easier draw, the other played the second week closer to home.

I say this because I can imagine the same thing today: make Duke #1 and KU #2 in the South, giving Duke the easier first weekend and KU the geographical advantage.

Basically, that would give Duke the edge in the Sweet 16 playing against #4, but KU would get a relative "home field" advantage in the Elite 8.

No, because Indiana will be higher than Lousiville so Indiana gets priority in the midwest and they get to play in Indianapolis. Gonzaga will get priority out west and be in LA which leaves Louisville, KU, and Duke. Louisville is likely to be the 3rd one seed which means they get priority over KU and Duke and since DC is closer than Dallas, Louisville is going to end up in DC and KU/Duke will end up in Dallas.

Bragging rights!!!!! Yes, but I knew we had them already. Next stop is in the DANCE. Let's just keep playing great D and let the freshmen help along the way. Our seniors will battle and show their funk. Self has shown you the green light, so show us how high you can fly. Doubters and all those negative commentators, watch the KU show. I even look for Releford to get some recognition for his Big D performances. Rock Chalk!

Is anyone concerned about Johnson's turnovers(6)? Sometimes I wonder if he slips into some kind of a mental fog for stretches at a time. He's a gifted player that drives the middle better than anyone on the team, but man can he be "out-to-lunch" at times.

I love how in the postgame comments our players remain classy and stand-up through and through. They didn't duck the loss to TCU, the 3 game losing streak or the 20 point blowout loss to Baylor. Well....look who's standing now? Family Over Everything--a tattoo a lot of our players have. Keep believing fellas and see you in North Texas (hopefully)!

What I get concerned about are the lazy passes. All of them have them. The best clip I saw this morning was McGruder saying he will leave the Big 12 like he came in, losing to Kansas. And Thomas Gibson whining how TCU can beat Kansas but we kan't. I misspelled that word because that was the way he would spell it. When you read this you must put your bottom lip out about an inch from your mouth to get the full effect of the interview.

It's a fair question. My guess would be Self is just so defensively-oriented that he cannot fathom the idea of leaving any holes on defense, whereas he's willing to take a gamble on offense in the interests of being aggressive, and thinks if there is a turnover his guys can get back in transition D and make the stop anyway (as they often do). It's not necessarily logical, yet you can't really argue with the results. And I haven't noticed too many recent teams riding a full-court press all the way to "One Shining Moment" anyway.

I notice that near the beginning of each half, we go through a period of bad TOs, most of which are lazy or miscommunicated passes. In both conference tournament games, we had a TO within the first 30 seconds. In the Iowa State game, it was Withey and against KSU it was EJ.

Do we come out too fired up/adrenaline or is it trying to force plays that aren't there? Even In the Iowa State game, which we lead early 15-2, we gave back a large part of that lead with careless or lazy passing. Fortunately, we normally regain control early enough that we have more than enough time to right the ship.

But not always.. as in the Baylor game. We never had the energy or tenacity to make a solid run.. I think we made three good runs at Baylor but whenever we came within 5-7 points, Baylor would come back with a run of their own.

EJ is the easy target but it's easy to tell when the team isn't setting blocks, dribbling instead of passing and taking the easy shot, not necessarily the best shot.